A Thuistí,
It came to my attention over the weekend that someone has set up ‘Tic-Toc’ accounts in the school’s name – THESE ACCOUNTS WERE NOT SET UP BY THE SCHOOL.
One of the accounts has 34 followers – mainly children from this school who think they are following their school. I do not know who they are following.
For those of you unaware of what Tic-Toc is , it is a video sharing platform that anyone in the world can use. The content range from highly sexualised material, to recipes for brown bread, to violent real-life attacks, and lots of individuals singing and dancing. It is not an appropriate environment for children.
Please discuss this note with your child – the dangers of talking to strangers online, the dangers of following someone they you don’t know. Tell them never to give out information about themselves or their families to anyone on line. Remind them that no one should ever make contact with a child – they should always contact you (the parents) first. Remind your children that if they speak to someone online without your knowledge that they are putting themselves in danger.
We as parents need to be aware of what our children are doing online. There are very many dangers and opportunities to be hurt online.
We are currently attempting to find out who is behind the false accounts.
If you would like more information about how to keep your children safe online, or how to talk to them about these issues please see Google – Familylink or Webwise.ie
Christmas is a time when parents might be thinking of purchasing technology for their children, please make sure that your children are protected from the many dangers that they could encounter online unsupervised.
*Children should never be allowed unrestricted access to the internet
*They should not have private access to the internet in their rooms
*Surfing should only be done in a public area of the house – kitchen/sitting room
Ruairí Ó hAnnluain
13/12/21